A Chinese university hospital has claimed no knowledge of an announcement that the world's first head transplant surgery would be conducted there within 10 months.
In an exclusive interview with German magazine Ooom last week, controversial Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero said the surgery was to be performed by Ren Xiaoping, a surgeon at Harbin Medical University.
"Ren will hold a news conference in the next two months, announcing the specific schedule," Canavero said.
However, when reached by thepaper.cn on Tuesday, a university representative denied the report, saying "they had never heard of it."
"Canavero made the decision himself. It has nothing to do with us. Ren has different areas of research," an employee with the publicity department of the second hospital affiliated with the university where Ren works as a surgeon.
The claim comes just days after reports that Canavero and Ren successfully conducted a head transplanted on rats. Last year, Canavero claimed similar success with a monkey.
